Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 21, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares in Star Media Group Bhd plunged 19 sen, or 15.45%, to a three-month low of RM1.04 yesterday, triggering the suspension of proprietary day trading (PDT) and intraday short selling (IDSS) activities.

PDT and IDSS activities, which will be enabled from 8.30am today, are typically suspended if a stock’s share price falls more than 15 sen, or 15%, from their reference price.

The counter had seen 2.68 million shares traded, leaving it with a market capitalisation of RM761.86 million.

Elsewhere, media and media-related stocks also fell. Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd fell four sen, or 2.2%, to RM1.78, Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd declined 0.5 sen, or 2.33% and Media Prima Bhd was down 2.5 sen, or 5.05%, at the closing bell.

Incidentally, Utusan Melayu fell into Practice Note 17 yesterday after defaulting on its loans and was unable to provide a solvency declaration to the exchange.

In a report yesterday, CIMB Research lowered the group’s target price (TP) to RM1.16 due to “uncertainty in the domestic economy and the structural decline in print advertising expenditure.”

MIDF Research, however, maintained its dividend estimates at six sen per share for each year given the group’s cash reserves remain sizable at RM309.3 million as at the end of the second quarter.

Meanwhile, Affin Hwang lowered its TP to 88 sen from 97 sen previously, maintaining a cautious outlook due to the challenging prospects for the media industry and the shift in reader preferences to online reading versus hard copies.

Kenanga Research also lowered its TP for Star to RM1 yesterday, maintaining its underperform call on the stock.

TA Securities had said in a report last week that media companies will continue being challenged by weakness in traditional advertising expenditure.

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